Topic: People/Family stories
Sunday: Sad day…we told our church family we were leaving and were hugged and cried upon til we were all soggy and headachy with sore eyes. There are two services on Sunday mornings, so by the end of the second one, we were spent.
I went home to prepare for our small group’s Superbowl party. I made twice baked potatoes….very popular item at the table that night. I sat and talked with some good friends most the evening. Even now I don’t know who won the game and I only got to see a couple of the commercials. (my favorite part of Superbowl) We all made fun of the Rolling Stones….heh. (ssshhhh)
Monday AM: I sorted things all day for our yard sale this Saturday…mostly in Maggie’s room. She has grown so much this last few months that she only had a few clothes left in her drawer that actually fit her. =( I got my hair cut by Kay, my friend who does damage control after I try to cut my own hair. It is quite nice now, all blended in and even. *sigh of relief*
Monday PM: My daughter Hannah and I went to see Jars of Clay in concert! They are by far my favorite group right now and I’ve been following their career since before they came out. I typed out an explanation ,but it was 3 pages long, so I will post it next as a separate entry…complete with pictures!
Tuesday: Emma’s 14th birthday!! We spent all day, beginning at 9am, in Flagstaff. Charles went to a ministers’ tax seminar and we girls took down Hannah’s IKEA loft bed to take to Phoenix with us, since Beth and Emma are sharing a room there. Then we bought a new single bed for Hannah (non-lofty type), set it up, exchanged couches with her since we don’t need 2 couches anymore, then it was off to buy Emma’s gift.
It is our tradition to buy a special gift for our daughters’ 14th birthdays. On each of them turned 5, I bought them a china tea set, when they turned 10 (and became a double digit) they had their first sleep over, and when they turn 14, we buy them a special ring. We’ve really appreciated the emphasis in modern Christian culture on purity and especially the True Love Waits organization. So, to make it a special, we get them a ring to symbolize their commitment to remaining sexually pure until the day they are married. They wear the ring on the ring finger of their left hand until the day they are married, then move it to the right hand. It not only makes it something to look forward to and is a tangible reminder of their commitment, but it gives us a great opportunity to have a lot of talking time about purity….which goes way beyond a mere physical act to the heart and mind. They get to pick out their own ring. Hannah chose a simple, yet pretty silver band with a carving of a heart and decorative scrolling in it. Charles let Bethany choose either the band kind or a ring with a stone….guess which she chose? She has a nice, small Tanzanite stone in her ring in a silver setting. Emma is our athletic, skater shoe and sweatshirt wearing girl, so we wondered what she would choose. We walked the mall and she was very shy about trying anything on, but as the afternoon sped by, she got more and more comfortable trying on rings and finding her taste in jewelry. =) She finally chose a white gold band with a very small setting of diamond chips which she was enjoying with awe as she held up her hand to the light and watched it sparkle, as only a diamond will.
There is something else that sparkles like nothing else in the world. That is a young girl, choosing the unpopular, but ever rewarding path of sexual purity. Emma has actually been doing Bible studies and reading books on sexual purity with her sister Bethany. Our youth group girls had an overnight purity party recently and ever since then, they have been discussing it and reading up on Josh Harris and Elizabeth Eliot books, as well as a few others I can’t recall. The books have so much more to say than just speaking to remaining virgins until marriage. Purity begins in your heart and mind, it is an attitude, it makes a plan of conduct and thinks about consequences before ever finding itself in a situation in which it has to make a choice. I am so thankful that my four daughters are growing up in a generation of youth leaders who offer such practical, mature, and fun, inspiring resources for purity of mind, heart and spirit, as well as body.
We ended the day by browsing at Good Will while waiting for Hannah to get off work and join us for dinner at the Galaxy Diner. The children's clothing was a dollar per piece and I found Maggie a cute summer wardrobe of play clothes for under $15.
Corned beef on rye and onion rings while listening to the Beattles and 50's songs on the juke box. Happy birthday Emma!
Wednesday: I woke up, relishing the thought of a nice day at home, packing a bit, schooling a bit, and trying to de-stress a bit. That turned out to be a distant dream that I never firmly grasped today. I decided I would go to our ladies Bible study, since we’ll only be here a couple more weeks. It turned out to be a nice fellowship time, but stressful because everyone has a sense of mourning around us since the news of our moving broke. I know it is out of love and it is a time of mourning, but I don’t think I can take this for more than a couple more weeks. I may just descend into a hole until the day approaches…it’s too hard! The leader asked me to say something and I did, only I bawled as I spoke and I hate to cry in front of people. I wanted to say some things, but it was sure hard to choke them out….even though it was a relief to speak them. We sure do love these people. Our hostess served lunch, but I can’t remember how it tasted or how I swallowed with all the chatting we did.
I finally tore myself away from the ladies and came home, only to find Charles standing in the kitchen with a handful of loan papers that we signed last night, in a most stressful time of reading the conditions and details of the house loan. Yipes…money…. we really need to go back to trading sea shells or something. Well, the papers needed to be sent over night to Phoenix, so I jumped in the car and drove the half hour to Flagstaff to Fed Ex the dreadful things, did some errands and came home in time for dinner….a store roasted chicken, salad, rice a roni made by Bethany and corn muffins made by my very own husband! He never makes food….and I love corn muffins! =)
After dinner I cleaned out our music cabinet in order to sell it in the yard sale. It was a nostalgic time, thinking about the music we’ve accumulated over almost 22 years of marriage and a few from college and high school years, now warped LP’s and garbled sounding cassettes. I threw away a lot of old tapes, copies of tapes, old warped cassette covers and sorted the rest into a huge ‘keep’ pile and a small ‘yard sale’ box.
Then I sat myself down to type….where I have been for the past 3 hours, finally able to feel a slight de-stressing coming about…..
